Archive for BK Business

So it’s been about 2 months since I have checked in here. There is so much to say. Let’s start with I am feeling good. That’s a great place to be. This surgery was huge but also reminded me how small I am as well. A lot of surviving hardship is about “surrender” – a lot happens we don’t expect, and when we resist , it becomes even tougher. This time I surrendered and am very pleased with things.

The time I’ve had off to focus on self care has been wonderful. My soul feels like I gave myself the space and energy it deserved to get through this hurdle. The tumors came out clean, pathology came out great and I have spent my time resting, binging on a new found love for television and a reignited old flame, pinterest. I realised that I haven’t felt RESTFUL in so long. No wonder I was constantly anxious and stressed out.

This experience has been a shift and a gift. I hope you all enjoyed the instagram takeover from my dear friend Meri from @gardensofthesun

“The bug soap is my daughter’s absolute fave. She loves the subtle scent, the soft lilac color and how she can let it fly over the tub. Next up I hope to give her one of Beth’s golden buddha soaps! Has anyone tried those yet? – Meri”

“Bali life is pretty good. As in, it’s amazing. I’m grateful for every single second of it. And the tub is definitely a bonus 🙂When we still lived in Java I got dengue fever and typhoid a few times. You just get sick a bit easier here in the tropics. We didn’t have hot water for years, and when we left I knew I wanted to move to house with a bath for the days we get ill. When the soreness and the aching gets into your bones and your knuckles, and it hurts even to lie down, nothing is more relieving than a nice warm bath. And a little self-care on the weekends never hurts! – Meri”

“The salt scrub is my absolute fave. This is my third bag of the most divine smelling salts. Beth, you can never ever stop making these!!! -Meri”

“I’ve been a raving fan of BethKaya for several years now. I still remember my very first purchase from Beth – the warm vanilla fig perfume oil mixed with little rough gems. I keep coming back to this scent, it’s the one that got me hooked. Do you remember your first purchase from Beth? -Meri”

“The gemstones hidden inside the soaps are the best thing ever! It’s like a little surprise. The tumbled stone is slowly revealing itself from the Brandied Pear & Lemon Poppy Soap. Can you guess what stone it is? -Meri”

“How does Beth even dream up all these wonderful combinations?! I mean citrus, basil, vanilla and mint! Amethyst, lavender and orange! – Meri”

What a beautiful tone to return to!

I still need a few weeks to get my act and line up together. But my focus is centered on re-invigorated intentions – tones like Citrus, Ginger, Orchid, Artic, Mint , Guava, Coconut and Rain,. I will lean on those myself to get my physical capacity back up to where it once was again then design self care pearls for the shop.

On another note some; and by some I mean a “paraphrased few” of my words were published in an article “sort of” about self care in Refinery29 – you can find the article here:

It’s ironic that a little self pampering and love is exactly what I needed for so long considering this is what my offerings are rooted within. Sending you all the best the ides of march has to offer and thank you for many of your supports.

2.27.17

Makeup

Makeup can be the difference between feeling undead

And human again

A bra

A bra is motivation to do something

House work ?

A scar below the bikini line seeing with two stab wound eyes in the belly and a belly button puncture for a nose

Happy Holidays and thank you to all of my beautiful patrons. It’s been a really abundant year at BethKaya. Going into surgery (date is set now 2/9) I am confident that afterwards I will be onto bigger things.

Here are some items I’ve been tinkering with just seasonally in small batches. I am going through this phase of creating items that appeal to the solar plexus and uplift spirits, naturally it being winter sometimes those blues catch up. Here’s to YELLOW!

Sometimes I get to really only check in once a season, having omnipresence on social media might make that excusable. I took a several month FB Hiatus to sort my head out a bit after ingesting this heavy news about needing surgery. So the ball is finally rolling and I have about 5 weeks left to stay open prior to all that going down. I anticipate being closed for about 2 months afterwards. I just don’t truly know. I will try to have essentials stocked up for you to stock up on in my absence, primarily Miracle Moringa and Faithful Shea Soaps. Those are my customers staples so I’ll do my best. I ask for your support right now .

Here is a preview of whats on the bill for the shop right now and through the coming weeks.

Biggest baddest version of my Moringa Miracle Bar to date up and live just for the holidays. ✨This soap sells out fast so grab it while it’s there / 4.6 oz

MOONBUTTER – pure organic avocado butter infused with Frankincense & Tangerine Oils married by Carnelian Energy. This butter was developed to rub on the stomach during times of lunar discomfort, but can also be used on breasts and hips as a ultra emollient protectant balm. Frankincense is particularly useful for those with tumors or endometrial discomfort. Developed for myself, offered to you in ❤️ SELLS OUT FAST

✨GARNET – Crystal infused 100% Natural Lipgloss.

Sold out Before I could Write about It My 96 year old grandpa asked me to make him a man soap. Can’t say no to Grandpa. This soap scent I’ll just label STEEL – it’s aquatic, masculine and fresh. Paired with an Amazonite core , Himalayan salt, and bronze dust abstracting with Activated Charcoal.

⚡️⚡️

Personal Smudge Kit

#lepidolite ..the finer things mood pills are made of ⚡️#nofilter

⚡️Signature

Orgone

Keep me posted on what you want to see go up in the shop before I close for a while. Thank you always for your love and supports.

It may not be officially fall yet but in my world it’s here – I am so dizzy and late on an update. I rolled out a few new soap tones and sets live in my etsy shop now! Bath melts are taking a little longer , they are actually the kind of thing that takes a bit of finesse!

COVER ART: {listen while reading}

Stay tuned for new scent hue announcements and tune into my @BETHKAYA instagram account for some giveaway updates! The blog content is going to ramp up big time. My little one is off to school and I have more time for the business. The plan is to expand presence which is already in motion. BETHKAYA just landed at new yoga studios in NJ, NY and Scotland! I will be doing blogs about all the locations that carry my label and interviews with some of my peers in the self made industry. These are always textured and interesting people, so I want to share their mission & why with you through an interview style process here on the blog.

In the mean time here are some of the latest creations live in my shop, These are seasonal things that might not come back next shift around the sun. I love working my shop like a farm to table cafe of sorts. It somewhat is; with ingredients being fresh, seasonal and limited here and there. Every season the “menu” takes a different shape. It’s a really lovely and quasi ephemeral way to design intentional bath and body. Check it out:

#THIEVES guardian #soap – Historical #EssentialOil Blend known as Thieves – Clove, Orange Peel, Cinnamon Bark, Eucalyptus Leaf and Rosemary – gets its moniker from the time of the bubonic plague when bodies would pile up and pillagers used this blend to thwart contracting plague while robbing their discarded spoils. I’ve paired this blend with a soothing guardian soap and #blackonyx perfect for blocking illness and bad energy infections. ✨

These all smell like fall. #apples #clove #oranges ⚡️#Vegan long burning non GMO soy and candelilla house mix wax blend Candles inside of Crystals now with wooden wicks that crackle ad more scent ⚡️

New Pairings✨ like thos faithful shea full bar soap with matching shimmer spray!

✨have no fear , clear skin is here! #MORINGA bars restocked!!!✨

1 oz signature Crystal fragrance solids are back in stock to travel with your fav BETHKAYA tone, perfect to roll with you in the handbag or backpack! Shout out to @capsociety and @etchythingsandaccents for their custom work that helps me keep my brand tight !

✨ Now my signature Crystal fragrance solids come in 2oz Cobalt Glass ! Fragrance solids are enduring, travelable and another sensory vehicle! I use these almost more than my oils, I love to swipe and rub behind my knees, in my hair and décolleté!

Back in October of 2015 I vended a local punk rock flea market. In the front area I remember meeting these two well dressed young men, with sleek correlating gear on. They were Jose Serrano and Chris Rockwell, partners for the clothing and lifestyle brand, Karma Cartel. I wouldn’t know it till nearly a year later, they would be collaborating with my own brand.

Chris runs a local series of events and coordinates with a lot of local talent in a very unique way. Support, Encouragement and Teamwork seem to be values that engulf the activities that the gentlemen take part in and host.

We found ourselves cosmically meeting to create a new flavor for their incredible brand, a pair of fragrances. These fragrances would embody the moral, spiritual and even swagger of their blooming indie label.

While entirely meant to both be unisex, one employs more of an assertive vigor while the other is softer and vulnerable.

Each is firmly rooted in fine sandalwood and home brewed madagascar vanilla. “K” is twisted with brighter coconut tones and “C” is bound in leather & amber. “K ” is paired with genuine grade AAA peridot and moonstone and whole Jasmine Buds. “C” is met with genuine garnet & coffee moonstone as well as red sandalwood bark. Sandalwood and Jasmine both represented a karmic relationship, as both are deemed in some cultures as holy and sacred natural offerings. Both are made of certified green fragrances and plant concentrates and are nearly completely natural. The outcome of this duo is much like the collaboration itself, my organic vibe meets their urban luxe & street spirit driven aura and the results are in the fragrances. Like all of my hues, each is meant to take you somewhere you longed to be, perhaps once knew, and most certainly wish to go to again and again.

Karma Cartel is launching this line Thursday August 18th! Visit their site, check out their label, and read more about these fragrances as well as snag them for yourselves! It was a pleasure designing for such a lively brand rooted in community and culture.

Heads Up I am going to be vending live, all of the art and holistic things you can dream of in a special installation for the SOULSATIONAL MUSIC AND WELLNESS FESTIVAL 2016! Click on that for more information about the festival as a whole I am super excited to be part of this movement!

Please stop my mine and all of the stages and booths! Bring your children and the whole family. There will be music and just good vibes all around town!

Hope to see you there!

Here is the official festival flier!! I believe I am booth 52 on the map if you want to stake me out 😉 I will be offering Henna Services and some other surprises just for this event. Please come say hi!

I wrapped up the kiosk this weekend at Jersey Shore Premium outlets. What an experience that was. I really enjoy setting up an installation that is unique to each venue I am at and really each day I am there. I take something away and adjust each time.

There were some moments of conversation that I will bring with more forward forever. A friends father visited the booth for a while and he is undergoing stage IV cancer treatments throughout his body. He was just so happy to be around and grateful through the words he shared. He told me how he had to fly to Georgia alone for his treatments. He wasn’t complaining at all I just remarked “That must be so difficult to do the travel on the heals of everything.” He just looked at me and said ” I have held my dying child, this is nothing, I can do anything.” He meant it. He also remarked “Every morning I look up at the sky and say thank you, cancer changes you, it really does.” So above all that conversation comes with me and helps me ground my gratitude practice.

@faerieblessings “crystal sphere and orgone point ring”

I put some new things up in the etsy shop, some essential oil blends, some candles, new scrubs and new edition soaps perfect for the thick of summer. I am really loving where the shop is headed and how it looks.

It’s been such an evolution. I have some new orgone pieces coming trickling into the shop too and would love for you to check it out and tell me what you think!

As a side note I am going to do my final installation of the summer at the SOULSATIONAL WELLNESS festival July 30, 2016. It’s a FREE, all day family friendly event with performers, artists, poets, and wellness centric EVERYTHING! I am so excited ! If you are local please come and stop by!

Join me this weekend at Jersey Shore Premium Outlets Saturday and/or Sunday for my final installation of the summer there! I am so excited, breaking out some new things, and favorites! Can’t wait to see you there!

This blog has never really had a solid goal or direction. I’ve owned this domain for over 14 years its just been my spot in space. In the last 3 years I have been interacting heavily on INSTAGRAM (IG). @BETHKAYA

IG gave me an incredible tool to communicate with. It became something I loved. I made buckets of new friends, connected with clients all over the world and explored beautiful photography techniques that would help my art become a viable business and voice of my own. This felt like the renaissance. I was getting a lot of traffic from every share. Every share amounted to sales, and brands were connecting with me to collaborate. It totally had it’s underbelly. Copy Catters and other various bits of undesirable natural social hiccups but I have sang the platforms praises, till now.

In the last 9 months or so, I noticed something alarming. I am organically sitting with 20 thousand + blessed subscribers. However, I am only engaging with less then 1% of them. When my following was at less than 10K I was garnering about 300 engagements per photo, this has been steadily and cyclically slashed. Now at 20 k I am engaging around 100. Also , I LOVED giving shout outs. I love tagging my friends and other makers in photos. Now when I do so, my photos are blocked and sometimes just removed. What happened?

I stare at my shop analytics and see the writing on the wall. The traffic to etsy is not coming from etsy (Thanks Etsy?) its coming from Instagram and a shred from google alla this site. Sales are remarkably down. They are still trickling from previous clients. I am sure grateful for these relationships I took time to foster. New clients? Very slim. This is panic mode as a business owner. I can’t stand quiet about it either.

I thought about class action lawsuits on the grounds of interfering with my ability to conduct business. I have over 100 friends who are feeling the algorithmic throttle from Instagram too. Did they have a task force come and hunt us down and sell us to the spam people who email me 3 X a week asking if I need more likes on my photos? Probably. Did haters mark my posts as spam or report me? A fraction, Probably. Did facebook decide that in order for me to reach my audience I need to boost through their marketing console on my facebook business page? Totally! Ultimately I can’t help but think there is a liability waiver for all of these thoughts built into their terms and conditions. I mean – who really knows what we sign away every time we agree to another app? Right? I can assume I have no leg to stand on. I can assume that once again the small business red tape grows wider then we were led to believe because social media “lessened that”.

So here I am, cut off from you. I’m not gonna lie – it hurts in more ways I can begin to describe. I watched a video of (KATWISE) another indie roots artist, who’s work I know from the music scene. In her video she was crying because of the very thing I am typing about. Being cut off from you, who we love, who supports our art, keeps food on the table and the lights on in our homes. For some artists, its not just a hobby – we price on formulas for fair market so we can compete in a healthy thriving arena. We sell wholesale, things we’ve made our selves. We are around the world with our businesses. We are up at all hours, fighting with the post office or packing things with absolute labors of love. Somehow that community gets that we to need lift each other up. We get each other and want to see others fullfill their passions and make a living at it if possible.

I know by now IG has seen the dozens of petitions, the #keepitchronological campaigns and more. I know Instagram robots have seen the 20+ letters I’ve written begging for throttle to my waiting audience to be lifted.

What else can I do?

This?

I was just a kid with a dream once too. A 16 year old on her own set out for NYC to be a working artist some day. I worked for the machine and clawed through design school at night. Instagram gave me a present, a way to express, UNDILUTED and in the most authentic way possible. People took to that, organically – and you took those people.

I know, I know, it’s just a platform. Wake up and live real life right? I know. All the haters, hate on me for being a cry baby. I will take that too. It’s just a space in time – things change, roll with the punches, sink or swim right?

I’m not going down either – I will keep sharing even if it’s to limited eyes. Those eyes matter!

This is about the art and what message is left behind when all it becomes is cosmic debris. The content I make comes from something that has nothing to do with this, and I admit I got too wrapped up in it’s power. This is a great equalizer. I won’t compare myself to those who haven’t been targeted by these shifts or who have garnered insane audiences doing things that well, have different merits then I would invest in. “Followers” are not the things to be preoccupied with. Relationships are. You can pan for gold in a gold field and still just find one little golden piece, but gold is gold.

Anyway, I just had to get that it out. This was an uppercut to my ability to do a lot of things growth wise that I had projected this year but I am just taking a detour and more real world roads this time. Thankfully, people still exist. That’s the medicine. Don’t put all your business eggs in one basket, and businesses found ways to survive when the climate changed.

Strikes and Gutters-

XO

Beth

*Edited to ad a side rant about Etsy, what is going on with etsy?

Apart from not getting any traffic or sales from their strip mall, they are using bots to deactivate listings based on algorithms too. 3 times in the last week my listings have been deactivated for no reason in my eyes. I spoke intensively with the “integrity” team as well. In order to garner traffic from etsy, you have to promote your own listings on top of the listing fee AND the check out commission? Where does it end? Stop nickle and diming! Stop bullying the little guy, who has done nothing but bring YOU traffic and revenue. Sheesh!